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Russian is past, Chinese is future? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| M-Squared Senior Member United States Joined 7125 days ago 117 posts - 118 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 57 of 150 14 February 2006 at 11:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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One metric for the global significance or importance of a language would be what information is available in that language and no other. In other words, what information can you access only through the given language?
The logic for English is easy, there is an enormous scientific and technical literature that is only in English. Sure, a lot of things get translated, but only well after original publication. As for other languages and other fields I don't have a clear idea. I know some people in the forum have noted that there is a lot of language material that is only available in French or German. It used to be that there was a large chemistry literature that was only in German. I don't know if that persists today. Some mathematics was hard to access outside of Russian or French in the past, but I think those days are gone. Looking forward, there are now many scientific and technical journals in Mandarin. It may be that they will create a store of Mandarin-only information in the future. Of course, on the cultural side there are large areas that can be accessed effectively only through the native language of that culture. But that is still generally only a regional, special interest thing. One exception might be Arabic, since Islam is a global religion and the core of Islamic culture materials are in Arabic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6929 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 58 of 150 14 February 2006 at 11:53am | IP Logged | |||||
I also feel that the choice of a language for communicating in the fields of science and technology is one of the more interesting indicators of the language's importance, and an early one at that. Note the transition from German to English in the physical sciences even before WWII, after many scientists started fleeing Nazi Germany. China does not yet appear very strong in research - the numbers are there, but the impact and the quality don't yet seem to be. This may change, however - at least in the US, the decline of interest in pursuing techincal subjects is sharp enough to be worrisome. So, if this trend is duplicated in Europe, and unless technical progress is supplanted by something else as a key engine of progress and prosperity, English may yet decline quite precipitously in significance, although some of the research winds up in India, which helps slow down the trend a bit.
Well, the religion may be global, but an interest in it to the extent of deciding to learn Arabic is still a "special interest" activity for non-Muslims. Edited by frenkeld on 14 February 2006 at 11:33pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Eriol Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6852 days ago 118 posts - 130 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Portuguese | Message 59 of 150 28 February 2006 at 4:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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Apparently russian isn't losing ground everywhere:
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublic ation=4&NrIssue=155&NrSection=1&NrArticle=15836 I won't go into the politics behind this, because frankly I don't quite understand it. The website www.tol.cz is worth checking out if you're interested in eastern europe or the former USSR. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| easyboy82 Pentaglot Groupie Italy Joined 6816 days ago 72 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek | Message 60 of 150 30 March 2006 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think that in an European context Chinese comes after ALL the European language.Don't forget Italian is the fourth most spoken language in the U.E : adding native speakers and those who learnt it as a foreign language it has more speakers then Spanish (official U.E data). The U.E is made of 25 countries,we have to learn to speak with our neighbours and to share our wonderful and rich european cultures before learning Chinese!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7169 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 61 of 150 31 March 2006 at 5:11am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't agree that you have to. If you are interested in learning Chinese you should be able to learn it before you learn european languages. I started learning chinese because I wanted to see how it worked as linguistic system and how it was different from european languages. Even though I now have some opportunities to speak it, it is still this original interest which keeps me going. I guess it is the challenge of it as well. Learning a Germanic or romance language just seems to easy :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| easyboy82 Pentaglot Groupie Italy Joined 6816 days ago 72 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek | Message 62 of 150 01 April 2006 at 3:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think you're right about the linguistic point of view (i am not a supporter of language learning just for practical purpose )
What i meant is that Chinese in NOT more important than Czech,Greek or Swedish in Europe as someone stated in this thread. Of course we can study it if we love its sound or are interested in its rich culture,but NOT because it is an important language to know to communicate in Europe. Edited by easyboy82 on 01 April 2006 at 3:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7169 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 63 of 150 01 April 2006 at 8:07am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with this. Anyway as I have written before on this forum I don't think anyone who only has business reasons for studying chinese will get very far with it. It just takes to much effort. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| banyon Newbie United States Joined 6848 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* | Message 64 of 150 04 May 2006 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I'd encourage you not to build your house in any street. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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